Florida is not the dumbest state in the union. Are you surprised?
We’re not too smart. We’re not too stupid. We’re Florida.
So says a new survey ranking of the smartest states.
According to SafeHome.Org’s Smartest and Dumbest States in America survey Florida ranked as the No. 28 smartest state in the U.S.
Researchers came by that decision by analyzing 2018 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education and the College Board.
The team then folded in the number of people with college degrees, high school graduation, professional or advanced degrees and test scores and assigned a numerical value from best to worst in each of the categories for each of the 50 states to create this smartest states ranking.
“Currently, 65% of Americans think they have above average intelligence and two in three people say they are smarter than other people. Everyone can’t be right,” a spokesperson for the research team said in an email to the Miami Herald, citing a 2018 Public Library of Science study.
Clearly, everyone in Florida can’t be right because 27 other states are smarter.
Among them:
New Jersey, which ranked No. 1 with 337.8 points, well ahead of Utah at No. 2 with 324 points.
Florida cobbled together 219 points, just behind Nevada and one position ahead of Washington. We’d probably rank even dumber had the years-long massive Interstate 395 redesign with its “signature bridge” been factored into truly dumb decisions.
Here’s how Florida fared:
▪ Adults 25 and older with bachelor’s degrees: 18.90%.
▪ High school graduation rates in 2017: 82%.
▪ Median SAT score in 2018-2019: 999. (This grade put Florida among the 10 lowest performing states — West Virginia had the lowest SAT scores in the U.S. at 943 and Minnesota the highest at 1,284.)
▪ ACT takers meeting subject benchmarks: 39%.
By comparison, New Jersey, which gave the world Bruce Springsteen (smart) and Bon Jovi (not so smart) saw a 24.20 percentage of adults with bachelor’s degrees. Of these people, 91% are high school graduates, the median SAT score was 1,090, and the average ACT takers who met the subjects benchmarks was 64%.
The 10 smartest states in the U.S.
If you want to have an intellectually stimulating conversation with your neighbor, here’s where you might want to live:
1. New Jersey.
2. Utah.
3. Massachusetts.
4. North Carolina.
5. Montana.
6. Virginia.
7. Kansas.
8. Wisconsin.
9. Oregon.
10. Minnesota.
If you want to talk about the Super Bowl Miami Gardens is getting in February with JLo and Shakira’s halftime show, why South Beach is better than the Jersey Shore, and why you’d rather listen to Gloria Estefan’s catalog as opposed to Oklahoman Reba McEntire’s, then you can lord it over these, er, dumbest states. (That’s the data talking, folks, don’t blame the messenger.)
The 10 least smartest states in the U.S.
1. Idaho
2. Oklahoma
3. New Mexico
4. Arizona
5. Louisiana
6. Alaska
7. Hawaii
8. Mississippi
9. Ohio
10. Kentucky
This story was updated and corrected to adjust an error in reporting the highest and lowest SAT scores.
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 3:01 PM.
